Pastor recounts aftermath of Lin family murders

TAIPEI--A Taiwanese pastor yesterday recounted how he rushed to the hospital to pray for former Democratic Progressive Party Chairman Lin Yi-hsiung's family members, who were killed in a brutal murder exactly 32 years ago.

John Jyigiokk Tin, a pastor and professor emeritus at the Tainan Theological College and Seminary, said the day the murder took place he was in Taipei and just happened to call another pastor who knew the Lin family.

"I heard him crying over the phone and asked why," Tin said after a memorial service at the site of the murder, which has now been turned into a church.

The service was held to commemorate the Feb. 28 Incident — also known as the 228 Incident, which was a brutal suppression of an anti-government uprising by the KMT regime in 1947 — and remember Lin's mother and twin daughters, who were murdered in 1980, also on Feb. 28.

Tin, 90, said after hearing about the tragedy he immediately contacted Willi Boehi, a Swiss reporter living in Taiwan, to accompany him to the hospital where the victims were sent.

Lin's mother Lin-You Amei and his 7-year-old twin daughters Lin Liang-chun and Lin Ting chun were stabbed and murdered at the Lin residence in Taipei by an unknown killer or killers.

Lin's eldest daughter Lin Huan-chun was severely injured and became the only survivor of the attack.

Tin said after arriving at the hospital he told the armed military police, "I am a pastor, and I have come to pray."

He said the police let him in and he was able to meet with Lin's wife and pray for her.

Tin said when he left the hospital he saw hundreds of people at the lobby who came to visit the Lin family but were blocked by the police.